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Films about 9/11
The Americans still haven't made the great 9/11 film. According to most American filmmakers, the imagery of planes crashing into the WTC is still too recent and too fresh for this generation of filmgoers, and America needs time to heal before it can properly confront that devastating tragedy on celluloid.
That isn't to say it hasn't tried. Here are some 9/11 films made by them and by us:
New York
Kabir Khan's new film looks at a pretty group of friends enjoying the sights and sounds of The Big Apple when 9/11 turns their lives upside down and all hell breaks loose as they are stripped of their credibility and their lives based on their ethnicity.
Qurbaan
All is hush-hush about the plot for Renzil D'Souza's directorial debut starring Saif Ali Khan and real life squeeze Kareena Kapoor, but we know it's about terrorism, America and September 11. Lets see what happens next.
Yuh Hota Toh Kuya Hota
Naseeruddin Shah's directorial debut amateurishly tried to weave four stories vaguely around 9/11, but a ghastly lack of subtlety -- and far too many quirks -- ensured that the film didn't have much of an emotional impact.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Sure, it's a documentary and there are several other worthier ones to be mentioned -- chief among them Why We Fight, Zeitgeist and Press For Truth -- but Michael Moore's Bush-attacking documentary is the most iconic of the bunch.
United 93
This smashing Paul Greengrass film looks at the one United Airlines flight that didn't make it to its destination, and the havoc on board. So authentically made is the film that its biggest criticism has been that it seems 'too real.'
World Trade Center
Nicolas Cage stars in Oliver Stone's surprisingly basic look at two firemen -- the real heroes of the 9/11 tragedy. The film has its moments but, despite a title that loaded, emerges quite flat.
Reign Over Me
Mike Binder's drama stars Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle in the story of a man who lost his family in the September 11 attacks, and the film shows how a good friendship gives one the fortitude to get over great personal loss.